He has Endured

My hope is secure
My soul is guarded
My faith is well-placed
In Messiah

He was born amidst bloodshed
Into a persecuted people
In the homeland of the bloodiest
Of pagan idols

The strictest examinations
Could find no fault in Him
The most cunning of traps
Failed to snare Him
He fulfilled every prophecy and law
And when they killed Him anyway
The grave could not bind Him
Defeat could not claim Him

My King is alive

Faction did not erase Him
Heretics failed to conceal Him
And all the pains Rome could inflict
Were not enough to halt Him

The barbarians attacked
And found their idols overcome
The Muslims advanced with sabers rattling
And were pushed back

Men of worldly piety
Tried to muffle Him
Sold His name
For gold and girls and good repute
And made to bury Him
In a golden tomb
But His words fell upon every language
His faithful sanctified houses of worship
and drove out the world
With a red-hot iron
And all the wealth of the world
Was not enough to hold Him down

Voltaire tried to replace Him
The Nihilists tried to ignore Him
Statists, Feminists, Communists, Transcendentalists
Skeptics of every kind
All tried to erase, supplant, refute
All passed away into ages past
While the object of their scorn
Remained

Kings covered Him
In imperial banners
Merchants locked him up
In the deepest bowels of slave ships
They tried to steal His name
To own it

They went the way of all mortal things

Persecution
Scorn
Subterfuge
Even Death
My King endured it all

The history
Of Emmanuel
Is a history of empty tombs